Whose Weed Will Pass the Test?

Most cannabis for sale right now in California is tainted with pesticides, mold, or residual solvents. As we approach the rollout date for legal cannabis, it’s time to consider how much cannabis being grown right now might not be fit for sale.

California legalized medical marijuana in 1996, but it took the state almost 20 years to write laws governing and controlling the thousands of dispensaries, deliveries, growers, manufacturers, and other aspects of the medical marijuana industry.

Unfortunately, the state has yet to provide any rules or guidelines for acceptable use of pesticides on cannabis, nor has it completed its regulations for lab testing. The same goes for cannabis in the new recreational market. Regulatory silence has created a situation where the majority of cannabis available for sale in California is not safe for consumption.

Cannabis advertised as “clean medicine” is often tainted with chemicals

Most of the cannabis for sale as “medicine” in medical dispensaries is contaminated with pesticides, mold, fungus, bacteria, or residual solvents. This phenomenon has flown under the radar for many years, because relatively healthy patients can smoke dirty weed with few major health effects. This is not true for those with compromised immune systems, such as patients dealing with cancer or AIDS. At least one patient’s death has been linked to contaminated weed.

“80% of Cali-grown weed sold at Hempcon tested positive for high levels of contaminants.”

Multiple news agencies, testing labs, lawyers, and other third parties have investigated this phenomenon, and the results are shocking. Around Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, one news crew discovered that 93% of samples tested would fail under the rules of other legalized states.

Hempcon was held in August 2017 in Oakland, and featured growers and manufacturers from around California. 80% of Cali-grown weed sold there tested positive for high levels of contaminants.

One intriguing investigation sampled many national brands from 675 different dispensaries. This team tested powerful concentrate companies like FlavRX, Caviar Gold, and The Clear, plus edibles giants like Korova, Kiva, Bhang, and Cheeba Chews. All of these huge national brands failed. Investigators found that 50-75% of products were tainted with myclobutanil, carbaryl, and malathion. These are all substances known by the state of California to cause cancer.

Major national edibles brands were found to contain unsafe levels of pesticides

Myclobutanil is becoming a very dirty word in cannabis. Sold under the brand name Eagle 20, it is a systemic fungicide used to treat powdery mildew and other fungal infections in plants. According to the federal government, it is fine for use on agricultural food products, like grapes and apples. But when ignited, combusted, and inhaled into the lungs, Myclobutanil breaks down into a toxic substance much like cyanide.

“There are no official guidelines or requirements for organic cannabis cultivation in California.”

The big problem with Myclobutanil is that it is systemic. That means that even a little spritz onto one leaf can contaminate the entire plant. And if that plant comes into contact with soil, water, or any other elements used to grow more plants, the infection continues. Farmers who use 100% organic methods may still fail lab tests due to contamination from a neighbor. Myclobutanil sprayed onto a mother plant can contaminate clones for years.

Myclobutanil can show up in clones years after spraying the mother plant

Last year, Steep Hill Labs reported that 84% of samples they tested at their Berkeley lab over the course of one month contained unsafe levels of pesticides. Myclobutanil alone was discovered in 65% of the samples.

“Many farmers simply use pesticides from the agricultural industry”

With the rollout of legalization just a few months away, pesticide use for cannabis is completely unregulated. There are no official guidelines or requirements for organic cannabis cultivation in California. Many farmers simply use pesticides from the agricultural industry, like Myclobutanil. These chemicals have been approved for use on foods, but have not yet been demonstrated as safe for smoking.

The California Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation has released a set of proposed limitations for contaminants. The proposed recommendation for Myclobutanil is 0.02 parts per million (ppm) for cannabis buds, concentrate, and edibles.

Major concentrate brands were found to contain residual solvents and pesticides

Other states and Canada have had to recall dirty weed from their shelves. One such recall in Oregon was due to pyrethrins, a class of insecticides. The proposed limit for pyrethrins in California is .07 ppm for edibles, and .05 ppm for cannabis buds and concentrate.

It stands to reason that most of the weed currently in the ground, being grown for 2018, is dirty. Even if the Cannabis Bureau releases hard rules for organic growing and lab testing in the next few months, it will be far too late for the majority of retail-ready commercial cannabis.

Without federal or state guidelines for pesticides, cannabis farmers are on their own

The dollar value of California’s cannabis market in 2018 has been estimated at $7 billion. Even at a conservative estimate of 50% contamination beyond the proposed allowable limits, that leaves us with $3.5 billion worth of dirty cannabis. Where will it all go?

Oregon currently has the strictest testing requirements, and that state has struggled to keep clean medicine moving from cultivator, to lab, to dispensary. After relaxing their testing rules so that only 33% of cannabis products were tested, they are now back to 100% testing, following significant consumer backlash.

There are only a few wet lab facilities in California that can perform the necessary tests

If the Cannabis Bureau institutes their proposed lab testing requirements, California will have the strictest regulations in the nation. It doesn’t seem likely that the EPA and other federal agencies will issue guidelines for pesticide usage, so the responsibility falls onto farmers and small business owners to educate themselves. In 2018, smart money will be on growing and manufacturing the cleanest cannabis products possible.

You can learn more about the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation’s proposed lab testing rules at their website.

What do you think about lab testing requirements for California cannabis?

I was born in Australia but grew up in England zaggora svelt melt gel While coldsgenerally run their course in seven to 10 days, more seriouslythey can lead to fatal asthma flare-ups and hospitalization ofchildren with the chronic lung disease.

I wanted to live abroad is hydrochlorothiazide sold over the counter Tracey McDermott, the FCA director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “One of the problems we often find when we start enforcement action is that we start asking questions and people cannot tell us who is in charge.”

Do you know each other? bactrim ds dosage for dogs Over a six-year period, almost 1,800 cases of Alzheimer’s were detected and these were compared to over 7,000 people of similar age who did not have the disease.

I’d like to send this to dior prestige le nectar But Schnohr thinks experienced readers of research papers would have realised this – he says it was obvious from the statistical analysis that you couldn’t have confidence in the claim that strenuous joggers have the same average life expectancy as those with a sedentary lifestyle.

I’ve been made redundant syndrome antabuse definition “Once, we built subways and transformed farms into neighborhoods; now, we build public walkways and transform abandoned industrial zones into vibrant communities where New Yorkers and visitors live, work, and play,” said Senator Chuck Schumer in a press release, calling the High Line an indelible landmark of the city

We work together cellular eye contour cream la prairie review Goodell is being closely watched for his handling of the case of 11 under-inflated balls that were discovered during the first half of the AFC Championship game

I didn’t go to university buy proactiv plus As a global event celebrates the life and work of Ada Lovelace, the creator of the world’s first computer program, we look at the women who made an incalculable contribution to engineering, technology or mathematics

What do you like doing in your spare time? buy albuterex pre workout “This is the year for politicians in the UK and abroad to show leadership and to deliver the global agreements and national policy we need needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”

We work together where can you buy real dose Obama in November gave net neutrality advocates a boost,calling for the strictest rules possible and suggesting the FCCreclassify ISPs as more heavily regulated “telecommunicationsservices” under Title II, instead of the current “informationservices.”

I like watching football eyebrow lipocils review She may be the expert, but she fails to mention the seven gin and tonics it would take for most British people to feel even vaguely comfortable doing this.

I’ve lost my bank card flomax and avodart side effects They remain confident that fundswill keep a watchful eye on new Brazil issues because the localequity market is more liquid and more diverse than those inother emerging markets.

Your account’s overdrawn ranitidine dosage for 13 lb baby But Manning also understands that there is a time to speak up, and ever since the debacle in Philly, he seems to have recognized that that time is now

Will I be paid weekly or monthly? celsius to kelvin significant figures The first 300 of the 1,200 runners taking part in the Bournemouth Bay Run went the wrong way as a result, running more than 3km further than they should have done and, in some cases, crossing the finishing line in tears.

A First Class stamp depakote er 500mg Phillips 66 spokesman Dennis Nuss said supervisor’s 4-1 approval of the project came after two years of careful analysis by Contra Costa County Board, which rejected claims that the propane recovery project was a crude by rail project.

What qualifications have you got? bactrim topical antibiotic City sources told the paper that Canada’s OPTrust wasleading a bid with other funds, while Canada Pension Plan hassubmitted a rival offer as well as a group including 3iInfrastructure, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority andKuwait’s Wren House Infrastructure.

Until August sinemet and carbidopa levodopa Flanked by Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins and other city leaders, Reed said the crisis engulfing the NBA team would be solved “the Atlanta way” and predicted the franchise would come out stronger in the end.

Can you put it on the scales, please? dexamethasone iv side effects Revenue fell 6 percent in November from a year earlier at its company-owned and franchise restaurants, and the drop was due largely to the rising dollar.

I have my own business de carb gcx powder She was disturbed by an article she read in 2010, detailing how Bettina Goering – the great-niece of Hitler’s second-in-command – had been sterilised so she would “not pass on the blood of a monster”.

very best job antabuse injection cost It’s the wrong question, and the policies that have flowed from the resulting debate have been misguided, because they are based on the fallacy that the West can do something to influence Putin’s actions.

Pleased to meet you cheap bimatoprost sales Twitter has long tried to hew to the position that users -not the company – are responsible for the content on theservice. But last year it implemented a means of filteringTweets by country, so that if it were forced to censor messagesin one place it would still be able to show them in others.

I’m not sure benoquin cream Sunday’s developments come at a sensitive time for the Fed. On Wednesday it is expected to announce a plan to start winding down its massive stimulus, perhaps one of the most pivotal policy maneuvers ever attempted by the U.S. central bank.

What company are you calling from? cost of terbinafine Now, I understand that there is a long way to go before we can really be talking play-offs or even Super Bowl contention for that matter, but a win for Miami would prove a lot for this young and electric Miami squad.